Engagement
 | 3 Credits – In service Course (45 Hours)
Instructor: Kim Kittredge kkittredgeliips@gmail.com
Course Description: As educators we want all our students to be curious, questionable and seek adventure through learning. This course will lead educators to take a different teaching route with their students. Critical thinking and thought-provoking techniques will be shared. Hands-on, and experiential learning, critical thing techniques and more will be explored. Since this type of “learning through exploration” is the wave of the future, educators, coaches, directors, and administrators will all benefit from the techniques shared in this course. Teachers will learn to utilize driving questions for students that will help them enhance their learning tremendously. The course will also center around deep discussion, PBL techniques, inquiry-based analysis and many more innovative concepts. This course is a must for all subjects and grade levels K-12. | |
 | Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia – gaylelumia@yahoo.com
In-Service Course – 3 Credits – 45 Hours
Course Description: A happy classroom is teeming with positive relationships and a sense of belonging. All students are treated equally, all input is taken into account, and students feel safe and respected. Creating this positive classroom culture provides students with the ability to flourish and connect to the material at large. This course will provide educators with the tools necessary to develop an enthusiastic mindset and to subsequently create lessons to match. Topics to be covered include positive reinforcement, effective classroom environment strategies, literature readings from the Dalai Lama and "The Good Life", as well as philosophical readings on scientific keys to happiness.
*A must for K-12 educators* | |
 | *New Course* Fall 2024
Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia – gaylelumia@yahoo.com
In-Service Class – 3 Credits – 45 Hours
Course Description: Children are natural learners eager to experiment, manipulate their environment, explore, and discover. In contrast, school tends to be a subdued place, not allowing for creativity and freedom. Most decisions are made with unfair regimens for students, ones that do not factor in their curiosity and communication skills. This course will enable educators to engage their learners effectively, to understand the concrete strategies that increase engagement and connection and decrease boredom and disaffection. They will learn to create empathetic learners who place kids in charge and collaborate effectively in imparting information and changing the narrative for all, overall increasing kids’ motivational levels and interests.
*A must for K-12 Educators!! | |
 |
Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia – gaylelumia@yahoo.com
(3 Credits/45 Hours) – In-Service Credit
Course Description: Individuals who do the most talking, thinking, reflecting, or moving do the most learning. When learners feel good about what, how, and with whom they learn, they’re more likely to want to do it again. Building upon childhood experiences and engaging our students in relevant, meaningful instruction in all disciplines is crucial. Participants in the course will understand the tools for success that their students need in order to make sense of their learning. They will learn to organize their content, pre-teach, structure their lessons perfectly, develop active participants rather than passive recipients of learning. Classrooms will be completely restructured to meet the needs of their aspiring learners! **A must for K-12 educators!!! | |
 | *New Course Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia- gaylelumia@yahoo.com Summer 2025 Dates – August 18th-August 22nd Course Credits- 3 Credits/45 Hours Course Description: Fostering deep and engaging classroom discussions is essential for promoting critical thinking and student engagement. Too often, classroom discussions tend to be blasé. This course will instruct participants on the tricks to tantalizing their learners. Teaching tools include effective communication and discourse, Socratic Seminars, innovative role-play, friends without pens, fishbowl, and many more! *A Must for K-12 Educators* | |
 | Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia –gaylelumia@yahoo.com
Many students can become overwhelmed and shut down before trying to work through a challenge. Difficulties can arise for students who have issues applying the skills necessary to be successful - academically, behaviorally and social-emotionally. When students are unable to engage in strategic learning, they risk believing that assignments and social situations are too challenging to attempt or to overcome. Students’ performance and self-concept are managed through mindful mindsets. Having students understand the benefits of managing their stress and identifying the ways in which they improve their academic, behavioral and social-emotional skills is crucial. In this class, teachers will learn how to gain the positive attention from their students when they are feeling defeated. They will analyze how perception relates to learning,
learn to manage the different perceptions of students, discover strategies to explicitly teach mindfulness, and uncover the avenues that unlock students’ frustrations. A must for K-12 teachers!!
| |
 | (Online, In-Service, 3 credits)
Instructor: Danielle Sukoff
daniellesukoff@gmail.com
Course Description
This course explores Real-time insights into student understanding through interactive lessons, interactive videos, gamification, and activities — all in a single platform.
Participants completing this course will:
| |
 | Credits: (3 credits/45 hours) in-service credit only Instructor: Dr. Christopher Korolczuk Email: DrK.liips@gmail.com Course Description: Parental involvement in a child's education is a paramount catalyst that can ignite a lifelong love for learning and unlock limitless potential. When parents actively engage in their child's educational journey, they create an environment that fosters academic success, emotional well-being, and personal growth. Studies have shown that students with involved parents are 55% more likely to have higher grades and 42% more likely to graduate from college, compared to their peers with less parental involvement. This staggering statistic illuminates the profound impact parents can have on shaping their child's educational trajectory, ultimately paving the way for a brighter and more fulfilling future. So, how do we get more parents and families involved??? NEW! This self-paced course uses an online learning platform called Canvas. All videos, reading materials, and assignments can be found in one online location. Also, you can simply type your assignments into the website and hit the “submit.” button. This new feature makes the course easier to navigate and more user-friendly than other courses. | |
 |
Course Description: The three P’s of instruction are the driving forces for students’ successes. Ingraining this mindset in our learners creates lifelong skills. This course will explore the vast array of connections that teachers must foster in the classroom, including interdisciplinary ideals as: text to self, text to world, text to text. Teachers will be able to engage their learners in every discipline and bestow enlivened lessons into their worlds. Topics include creative writing, exploratory science, oral histories, mathematical manipulatives. All Next Generation standards will be covered. A must for K-12 Educators!!!
(3 credits/45 hours) In-service credit only | |
 | Pickleball is one of the fastest growing sports in the world, offering an exciting blend of strategy, movement and social connection. This course introduces the fundamentals of pickleball while exploring how it can be used to foster student engagement, physical activity, and a sense of community. Designed for teachers of all levels, this course provides step by step instruction, engaging videos, hands-on activities, and written reflections to help participants understand and implement pickleball in educational settings. | |
 | (3 credits/45 hours) In service credit only
Instructor: Joanie Deignan jdeignanliips@gmail.com
Summary: A positive learning environment can impact a child to succeed at many levels. Students learn better when they view the learning environment as positive and supportive. A positive environment is one in which students feel like they belong, can trust others, and feel encouraged to tackle challenges, take risks, and ask questions. This course discusses different ways to be positive and your personal experiences demonstrating positivity to students or colleagues. This course is geared towards K-12 educators and special area teachers as well. | |
| *New Course*
Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia – gaylelumia@yahoo.com
In-service Class – 3 Credits – 45 Hours
Dates: Spring Break Course – April 14th-18th (2025)
East Meadow Location – 8-5 pm
Course Description:
Promoting social unity and bridging cultural divides are concepts that need to be centered in every classroom. Within this course, educators will work collaboratively to plan, teach, observe, and explore student engagement. Strategies for rigorous learning and creations of inclusive classroom culture is what the focus will be. Educators will inculcate student cultures and values as well as explore the ways in which learning occurs equitably. Lessons will be taught that center around every discipline and grade level, as well as various types of assessment and prompts that promote student interaction.
*A Must for K-12 Educators | |
 | *New Course Instructor: Kim Kittredge kkittredgeliips@gmail.com 3 Credits In Service Course (45 Hours) Dates: Summer 2025 – July 7th-11th Cousre Description: College and Career Readiness is the new expression in schools today. What exactly does it mean? How do we help our students achieve it? How do we model our lessons? This course is designed for educators who want to work with their students and get them to the next level. Educators who are looking to explore higher order thinking strategies for their students will explore practices to use daily. Teachers will work to share critical thinking, communication, collaboration and other components that students will need in the future for uses in the real-world. Educators will feel confident in sharing their lessons and promoting readiness in all students. This course is a must for educators K-12. | |
 |
Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia – gaylelumia@yahoo.com
Course Description: Engaging students in the learning process and motivating them for success is a dynamic endeavor, one in which guides students’ futures and prepares them for the rigor of higher education. Finding the means to inspire students and infuse passionate learning is tantamount for them. Within the course, participants will examine case studies, real-world examples, and ways in which captivating learning can be harnessed. They will develop strategies for engagement and dissect the means it requires for an enchanting audience, teeming with higher-order thinking.
**A must for K-12 Educators!!! | |
|
Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia – gaylelumia@yahoo.com
In-Service Course – 3 Credits – 45 Hours
Course Description: Developing a wide range of critical and reflective thinking skills is tantamount to student success. As information becomes available readily and modern society is changing more rapidly, students need to constantly rethink and change their problem-solving activities. This course will provide participants with a wealth of reflective thinking skills that guide students’ thought processes and hones in on their distinct learning abilities. Activities include : reflective journal writing, small group activities, explorations, web activities, and concrete learning skills.
*A must for K-12 Educators* | |
 | Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia – gaylelumia@yahoo.com
Course Description: The power to bounce back from difficulties is crucial for students. Providing the means for effective communication and engagement is the true role of educators who are charged with developing students’ independence and guiding them in their endeavors. This course will provide participants with a way to engage students irrespective of their difficulties. Teaching with resilience means fostering student independence, utilizing exemplars, modeling fiction and non-fiction sources, and fully examining the means to have successful connections. A wealth of lessons and ideas will be introduced.
A must for all K-12 educators!!!! | |
 |
Course Description – Motivating students who have checked out to learning can be extremely stressful. Teachers need a blueprint for introducing more rigor into their classrooms while creating fun-filled activities that are critical thinking and inquiry based. Participants in this course will learn how to effectively address the distinct needs of their students that go beyond their comfort zones and push them toward success. A slew of activities will be completed including differentiated instruction, reading and writing in the content areas, interdisciplinary tactics, cross-cultural techniques, and current websites geared towards success. Both fiction and non-fiction sources will be addressed, as well as science and math strategies for learning.
(3 credits/45 hours) – In-service Credit | |
 | Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia – gaylelumia@yahoo.com
In-Service Course – 3 Credits – 45 Hours
Course Description: Establishing a meaningful rapport with learners is tantamount for teachers. Encouraging students to get to know one another is crucial. This course will demonstrate the ways in which teachers can create rapport with their learners. Activities include - showing a sense of humor, encouraging class discussion, sharing personal insights and experiences, developing long and short-term aspirations. Participants will comprehend the multitude of ways in which rapport improves student motivation, feedback, student learning, and communication.
*A must for K-12 educators* | |
 | Course Description – Creating a rich RTI Classroom, embedded with Tier One, Two, and Three Strategies can transform students’ lives. Being able to connect our students and have them walk in the path of success is essential for all students. In this class, teachers will be able to create lessons that engage the learner via Responding to Intervention techniques, including differentiation, student empowerment, student modification. A Must for K-12 Educators!!! (3 credits /45 hours) – In service Credit | |
| Diving deeper than Wh questioning techniques, this course will provide teachers of all grade levels strategies to increase student engagement by incorporating various questioning strategies into their daily lessons. How to differentiate questions to engage all learners, including ELLs, G &T and Students with Disabilities will be examined. | |
| Student engagement is tantamount in 21st century classrooms. Regardless of subject matter, students need to have techniques that enable them to become self-motivated learners. Providing students with the ability to partake in philosophical discussions and seminars will foster an enhanced understanding of the academic content. In this course, participants will comprehend the unique lessons of the Socratic Seminar and Philosophical Rounds techniques. They will be able to integrate these processes within the confines of their classrooms and enhance the learning environment. A must for all K-12 educators!!!!
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) in-service credit only | |
 | Transitioning to an on-line platform is not an easy feat. Students need the capacity to hone in on time constraints, pace themselves properly, address issues in learning, communicate with their teachers, and so much more. This course will enable teachers to cope with methodologies of instruction and challenge their students to greater levels of learning and intensity. Creative lessons will be introduced as well as intriguing flipped lessons, web quests, articles, and fiction that enhances all classrooms. Ideas will be shared and employed perfectly. All grade levels and subjects welcome.
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) in-service credit only | |
 |
Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia – gaylelumia@yahoo.com
(3 Credits/45 Hours) – In-Service Credit
Course Description: Engaging students in successful learning is an art. Keeping them directed and focused is contingent on many factors – all of which will be emphasized and articulated in this course. A myriad of content driven essential skills will be covered – including activities as predicting outcomes, empathy cards, affinity diagrams, common likes, as well as a plethora of creative and compelling take homes, all of which the developing individual needs in order to flourish. Students in all disciplines can benefit from the guided focus and essential content within the confines of the class. **A must for K-12 educators in all disciplines!!! | |
 | (3 credits/45 hours) In service credit only
Instructor: Grace Rossetti gracerossettiliips@gmail.com
Course Description: Struggling with how to start and end each day with your students? In this course, participants will learn the importance of Responsive Classroom techniques, specifically morning meeting and closing circle strategies. Participants will walk away with a plethora of greetings, morning meeting messages, games and shares to be implemented into their routine right away. The four components of morning meeting will be discussed in detail, as well as incorporating closing circle This engaging way to start and end the day will lead to student success both socially, emotionally and academically. This course is a must for all Educators K-12. | |
| *New Course Instructor: Kim Kittredge kkittredgeliips@gmail.com 3 Credits In Service Course (45 Hours) Dates: Summer 2025 - August 25th-29th Course Description: This course will deal with the tried-and-true form of teaching learning. As educators we should teach our students to work smarter, not harder! This course will provide teachers with simple strategies that will make students’ time in your classroom worth it! Students will learn and study more effectively and make learning stick. Educators will discuss in this course research on how the brain works and thus retains information. Teachers will discuss the day-to-day reality of teaching and learning strategies to a dynamic classroom of students of all levels. Educators will discuss the basics of how the brain takes in and stores information, as well as best practices for retrieval of daily information. Easy-to-implement strategies will be shared to help guide any educator through lessons that can improve outcomes for all students. This course is a must for all educators grades K-12. | |
 | *New Course
Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia – gaylelumia@yahoo.com
In-Service Class – 3 Credits – 45 Hours
Dates : May 5,6,7,8,9,12,13,14,15,16th (2025)
East Meadow Location – 4:15 - 8:15 pm
Course Description:
Effective discourse is integral for students today. Encouraging the utilization of higher thinking skills in students and encouraging them to speak their minds is what freedom of education is all about. This course will explore depth of knowledge and create questions that enhance the development of critical thinking skills. Additionally, building background knowledge around a wealth of student centered topics will be addressed and deepening comprehension and vocabulary will lead to greater student discussion and conversations. Participants will emerge with a wealth of ideas to implement immediately.
*A Must for K-12 Educators | |
 | Energy, energy, energy! Teachers will learn to completely spruce up their classrooms with ideas for helping children achieve their maximum potential. discover the wonder of learning, the power of the imagination, and the wealth in finding oneself. Teachers will immerse themselves in creative activities that develop the culture of their classrooms. They will comprehend the level of passion and dedication that is inherent in our field and in turn, learn to develop lessons that correlate to student needs. Strategies for reluctant learners will be focused on as well as creating lessons that are relevant to their students’ cultures. A variety of ideas for multiple subject matters willl be taught, including award winning books, mathematical strategies, and historical games. Teachers will emerge will lessons that show how to value quality over quantity and teach effectively rather than rotely. All grade levels and subjects welcome.
ON-LINE (3 Credits / 45 hours) in-service credit only | |
 | Course Description:
A creative classroom will help to develop a creative student. This course will explore how educators can work towards turning their classroom into a room where students want to learn. Students will thrive and learn with fun, exciting and higher thinking skills and lessons. Educators will share creative techniques while working towards fostering student success. This course is a must for all educators grades K-12.
ON-LINE (3 credits/45 hours) in-service credit only
Instructor: Kim Kittredge kkittredgeliips@gmail.com
| |
| *New Course Instructor: Kim Kittredge kkittredgeliips@gmail.com 3 Credits In Service Course (45 Hours) Dates: Summer 2025 - July 28th-Aug 1st Course Description: A creative teacher is a teacher that students remember. This type of teacher is a pleasure to be around, makes you laugh and makes you want to come to class every day. This course will arm educators with the positive and fun strategies they will need to be the creative teacher they want to be. Strategies such as games in the classroom, exciting cooperative learning activities, and how to build positive and strong relationships that inspire your students will be discussed. By the end of this course educators will feel that they have enough strategies to inspire their students for free exploration and an open atmosphere in the classroom. This course is a must for all educators grades K-12. | |
|
Instructor – Gayle Meinkes-Lumia – gaylelumia@yahoo.com
3 credits (45 hours) – In-service course
Course Description – Students frequently become disenchanted when a lack of communication is prevalent in their lives. Speaking a dialectic of freedom means empowering students via engagement and dialogue. Engaging in a plethora of discussion, analysis, and critical thinking elevates students perfectly. This course will focus on the tools that learners require to effectively communicate including Socratic seminars, research on written and spoken communication, questioning techniques, body language, dialogue skills. A wealth of ideas for one’s classroom – entrancing all!
A must for K-12 Educators!!!!!! |